The Historic Moonlight Towers in Austin (overseas investment properties)
No commentsBy Ki Gray
Most visitors to Austin notice the unusual streetlights strategically located throughout the city known as the moonlight towers, but most are not aware of the history of the towers. Probably the most well known of the moonlight towers is the one in Zilker Park which is used every year to represent a huge Christmas tree, when it is encircled with multi-colored lights and can be seen from miles away.
There are actually 17 moonlight towers in and around Austin, including the Zilker tower, and these lights have been in use since the late 1800s, when Austin purchased the lights from the city of Detroit. In 1894, 31 used mercury vapor lamps were installed throughout Austin, and at the time, these types of lights were used in many cities across the country, but Austin is the only city still using them today.
The lamps, which are perched atop wrought iron posts, give off a distinctive pinkish-yellow light, and the lamps illuminate a 3000 foot circle of ground. Even thought the lights appear to be one large lamp, they are actually made up of 6 carbon arc lamps, and the lamp poles are actually 165 feet triangular posts made of cast and wrought iron.
The 100 year anniversary of the moonlight towers was celebrated in Zilker Park in 1995, and some of those who attended the anniversary event still have the custom made shirts which were available for purchase at the event, with an original artist’s rendition of the lamps on the front and back of the shirts, including the date of the commemoration of the lights. These shirts are considered collector’s items now, and the lamps themselves are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Most of the moonlight towers are situated in or around the older residential neighborhoods which encircle the downtown area, such as Clarksville, Speedway, Bouldin Creek, and the Zilker Park neighborhoods, but some are actually located in the downtown area itself, such as the one that is located at Guadalupe Street and West 9th. During the time of the 100 year anniversary of the lights, all of them were taken down and restored one at a time and then replaced in their original location, and even though there were originally 31 lamps, there are now only 17 in operation.
Each moonlight tower is held up by a fifteen foot pedestal which is encircled with guy wires and a network of cables, and the lights are changed and maintained by the use of a ladder which is affixed to the towers. Each tower has a commemorative plaque as well, with a brief history of the lights engraved on the plaque. The lights have been in continuous operation for over 100 years, and during that time, the lights have only been turned off twice.
The first time they were turned off was in 1905 when the lights were unlit for week during a dispute between the members of the city council and the Water and Light Commission. The second time they were turned off was in 1973, when the national energy crisis required the city to turn them off to conserve energy.
The moonlight towers are another example of the uniqueness of Austin, as well as Austin’s intention of preserving our heritage and honoring its historical significance. Many people travel to Austin to see the annual lighting of the Zilker Tree, which includes a yearly celebration of the Zilker Moonlight Tower, so be sure to visit Zilker during the holidays and check out the beautiful, tall, lighted tower, which is lit to resemble a tree, or drive through the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods and take a look for yourself at these legendary lights!
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Escapeso Realty helps buyers and sellers in Austin Texas. Their site is filled with stats on the Austin Texas real estate market. Additionally their site has a free mortgage calculator and a search for Austin homes.
Tips for Selecting the Best Market for Real Estate Investing
By Ben Needles
There are many great real estate markets to invest in. And the only way you can take advantage of that as a real estate investor is to choose one and get started. Use these tips and you will be well on your way to earning a lot of money investing in real estate.
TIP #1 Decide What You Want
Like anything else you need to see the goal before you can reach it.
First you need to decide on your goals, or what you want to achieve through your real estate investments. Then you can choose the strategy or approach that will best allow you to achieve those goals.
For example, do you want to achieve passive income that will be a greater return on your money than the stock market, or do you want to be financially independent through your passive income on rental property? Or do you want to be an active investor and create a business of rehabbing and flipping properties?
If you want passive income determine how much you need to make a better return on your money or how much you need to be financially independent.
TIP #2 Determine How Much Investment Capital You Have to Work With
If you have little money the best way to start making money is to invest in rent-ready, or currently rented, properties with a nice positive cash flow. Even if you have cash you may still elect to go this route, or you may choose for a bigger payday upfront.
In the case that you are just starting out, it is best to find low cost houses. The investment for the initial purchase is much lower and the rehab can be done for less. The rule of thumb is not to put more money into the rehab (not including the purchase price) than you will make on the deal. ($20,000 rehab gets you a $20,000 profit.)
You can make money in real estate without money, but that takes a large time commitment and a bit of luck. Otherwise you need some type of funding, whether you purchase with cash or hard money, buy and hold for rental income or rehab and flip, you will always need some reserve money when purchasing real estate.
TIP #3 Choose a Real Estate Market that is Good for You
Not all real estate markets are conducive to purchasing property for cash flow; most of the state of California for example; and of course some areas are better than others. And the best real estate markets for investing in properties for rehabbing and flipping are ones that people are buying homes in, obviously.
Before investing in a market outside your own do some research using sites like the government census website. Prosperous investors know they are in a good real estate market for their investing goals before they start.
About the Author (text)
For market selection tips and market research information please contact me: hutch@montgomerywholesaleproperty.com. For great wholesale rental property, visit: http://www.MontgomeryWholesaleProperty.com ; For great wholesale properties for rehab best html menus
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National Bank: How to Fix the Housing Crisis for Less than 700 Billion
By Ki Gray
Recently the news has been dominated by developments with the 700 billion dollar bailout package, and rightfully so. 700 billion is an astronomical sum of money. The first problem is that the 700 billion dollar bailout adds a huge amount of money to the national debt. Not only that, some have hinted that the bailout is so large it could actually lower the US Credit Rating. The second problem is just as serious. There is no guarantee that the bailout will work.
The idea behind the bailout is that by taking on billions of dollars of toxic loans the government hopes to “influence” banks to start lending again. The past attempts of the government to “influence” banks have all failed. The fed lowered the fed rate to influence banks to lower mortgage rates. While the banks were appreciative of lower rates they did not lower mortgage interest rates. In fact after the fed cut rates the banks increased mortgage rates because they saw negative prospects in the housing market.
In a similar way, after the US government takes over the toxic loans away from them the banks could continue to see negative prospects in the housing market and therefore would continue to have strict lending practices. The idea of spending 700 billion with no guarantees seems like a poor use of capitol.
When people hear the word “National Bank” the first thoughts are of a socialized banking system. A national bank would not replace the current banking industry. It also does not “introduce” government involvement into the banking industry. With the Fed influencing interest rates and the government rushing in to bailout every bank that runs into problems the government already has a large hand in the banking industry. I don’t want to argue whether the government should have a role in the banking industry. Currently the government already has a significant role in the banking/mortgage industry. My argument is that if the government does have a role it should be effective and cost efficient.
A national bank would be a cheaper and more cost effective way to steady the financial markets. To understand how a national bank would work lets first talk a little more about what is currently causing the housing crisis. The mortgage market operates a little like a basketball game. Lenders go from one extreme to another. For awhile lenders will lend to anyone that walks in the door with a pulse. During these periods lenders accept less and less qualified applicants in an attempt to gain market share. Then the lenders get freaked out (often because someone realizes they have been giving out billions in loans to unqualified applicants that are unlikely to pay their mortgages) and lenders run to the other extreme and practice extremely restrictive lending practices (the insurance industry sees the same cycles but that is another topic).
If you haven’t already guessed currently we are in the second scenario with lenders practicing extremely restrictive lending practices. The problem with the second situation is that such extreme changes shocks the housing market and basically causes a financial crisis. The banks are in a catch 22. If collectively the banks don’t lend the housing market will continue to deteriorate. But no one wants to lend because they are worried the housing market will continue to deteriorate because collectively they are not lending. It’s kind of like at a party where you don’t want to be the first person to jump into the pool because if no one else does you look foolish. Substitute looking foolish with going bankrupt and you kind of see where banks are coming from.
The great depression and the S&L crisis were both basically examples of this same problem. Initially during the great depression the conventional logic was the government should not intervene. As the stock market continued to drop (it dropped over 80% in less than a year) and people realized how bad an economy can get (pretty bad) the idea of government intervention seemed more palatable compared to the alternative.
So now during periods where lenders are freaked the government attempts to “influence” lenders. The problem is its extremely expensive. Currently the government is taking on years and years of bad loans in an attempt to “influence” lenders to loosen their current restrictive lending practices for the next 6 months to pull us out of the housing crisis. This is kind of like trying to influence your local school to spend money on new textbooks by building them a new school. Not only is it ridiculously expensive after you build the new school you have no guarantee they will buy the textbooks. It’s not simply a poor use of government funds it’s utterly outlandish.
So how would a national bank operate? During periods where banks are giving out loans to everyone that walked in the door the national bank would practice have average lending restrictions with interest rates slightly higher than what is available at most banks and give out very few loans. When the banks became ultra restrictive the bank would again have average lending restrictions. During these periods it would give out more loans.
So the government would not practice the outlandish lending practices we saw during the boom they would not be as restrictive as the banks are now. In fact this would probably do more to influence banks lending practices than the 700 billion giveaway. Remember how we talked about banks not wanting to lend money because no one else was lending money therefore making them nervous about the prospects of the housing market. Knowing that money would always flow provides some stability to the market. Also it would be much less expensive. Having the government provide some loans over the next 6 months with average restrictions during a low point in the market would be much better than taking on years of crappy loans given out during the peak of the market to very unqualified home buyers.
Would some banks go under? Yes. But you know what they should. Bailing out foolish banks that threw caution to the wind and had wildly risky lending practices almost guarantees that we will be faced with another housing crisis in the future. Instead we should allow some of these banks to die. First it prevents these banks without a sense of risk from causing these problems again. Secondly, it influences other banks to exercise more caution during boom times. The bailout sends a message to banks that during the boom they should ignore caution because the government will come in and take all their bad loans away like some kind of bizarre magical bad loan tooth fairy.
I realize this article might bother people that want the government to have no role in the banking/mortgage market. But if we accept that the government already has a role in the banking industry (the possibility of the government taking itself out is pretty much nill for the next decade) to stabilize markets at the least it should do so in a way that is effective and cost efficient.
Escapeso Realty is a small company in central Texas. Their site has up to date information on the Austin real estate market. It also has a search of the Austin MLS for visitors and a tool that tracks mortgage interest rates.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 9:00 pm and is filed under realestate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
